About SMS and ColdFusion

Short Message Service (SMS) is a system designed for sending short, often text, messages to and from wireless devices, such as mobile phones or pagers. SMS is widely used in Europe and Asia and is becoming increasingly popular in the United States and elsewhere. Some uses for SMS include the following:

• Performing banking transactions
• Sending authentication codes, for example, to be used to access web resources
• Voting, such as popularity voting for reality television shows
• Initiating an action (such as a server reboot) and getting a response
• Notifying users of events such as package shipments or restaurant table availability, or providing stock or weather alerts
• Sending person-to-person text messages
• Presenting interactive text-based menus on a cell phone
• Providing cellular phone updates, such as direct download of logos
• Providing telematics and mobile or remote wireless device applications, such as soda machines, vehicle tracking, smart gas pumps, and so on

SMS protocol features include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Authentication verification is built in.
• Communications can be secure.
• Store and forward communication is performed in near real time.
• Communications can be two-way and session-aware.
• Mobile devices such as cell phones already include support; there is nothing to install on the client.

The following sections provide a very brief technical introduction to SMS and the procedures required to develop and implement an SMS ColdFusion application:

• About SMS
• About SMS application development and deployment
• How the SMS event gateway and provider SMSC interact

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